LEO Dictionary, German TV, and Willamette World News

Posted by: msunada | October 1, 2007 Comments Off on LEO Dictionary, German TV, and Willamette World News |

Grüß Gott! This week we feature an excellent online dictionary, how to watch TV in German, and the Willamette World News program.

This week’s entry starts out with one of the most basic tools for foreign language learners – an online translation dictionary. The most helpful one we have found in our searches is called LEO, found here, or at http://dict.leo.org. When you search for a word, both translations and relevant phrases pop up. This is very useful! For example, searching for the translation of the English verb “to see” also provides translations for:
to see about something
to see you later
a must-see
to see for yourself
I see your point
and
the Holy See.
All-encompassing, wouldn’t you agree? Bookmark this site or place a link on your toolbar – we guarantee you’ll use it.
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Our second topic this week involves an amazing resource that Willamette provides. As you may or may not know, the large and rather ugly satellite dish on the south roof of Smullin/Walton is not merely for show. It is part of a special program that enables the building to receive television channels from around the world. You can watch these channels from any of the TVs in Smullin or Walton, or from any of the computers in the Language Learning Center (room 18B in the basement, remember?).
We have one channel that is earmarked for German stations. At the moment, it is set on the Prosieben channel, although Deutsche Welle (a news channel) and Kino (lots of movies) are also options. If you prefer to watch one of these others, let the LLC assistant know and we will switch it out. If something is broadcast during a busy time for you, we can even digitally record programs!
Finally, for all you multilinguals, keep in mind that there are many other channels offered as well – TV5Monde in French, CNN en Espanol, and others in Japanese, Chinese, and Russian.
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Last but not least is the Willamette World News. You can find it here, or from a link on the left side of the LLC home page. This site is a great way to get to know your Willamette peers better, while keeping in touch with what events are happening around the world. The World News is basically a blog created by international students at Willamette. For each entry, they link to a current event or news story about their country and give their explanation, opinion, or cultural context about it. This year’s issue debuted last week with an introduction from each of our contributers. Check it out!
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Finally, if there’s anything you’d like to know more about, or a German resource you need, let us know by leaving a comment on this blog. We are here to help you!